Vietinbank's assets rise 11 pct to $11.8 bln

HANOI, July 21 (Reuters) - State-run Vietnam's third-largest lender, Vietinbank, said its assets have risen 11 percent so far this year to 194 trillion dong ($11.8 billion).

Hanoi-based unlisted Vietinbank, or Vietnam Bank for Industry and Trade, has said its total assets accounted for 15 percent of the assets in Vietnam's banking sector last year.

Vietinvank has so far raised 160 trillion dong in deposits, Chairman Pham Huy Hung wrote in an article published by Monday's the Labour Confederation-run Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper.

"The quality of loans and investment is tightly controlled by operational procedures in line with international practice," Hung said, adding that bad debt accounted for less than 1 percent of its loans. He did not give the size of the bank's credit.

The unlisted bank does not publish its results on regular basis except for its annual reports, with the last available so far for 2006.

Last Wednesday, Fitch Ratings affirmed Vietinbank's Individual Rating at 'D/E' and its Support rating at '4', "based on its good client franchise, satisfactory profitability, acceptable asset quality and just adequate capitalisation".

The bank said in a report in early July that its credit, including loans and investment, rose 7.5 percent from the start of this year to 165 trilion dong at the end of June.

Vietinbank's credit growth so far slowed from an annual rise of 8.6 percent in the same period last year, the bank has said.

The State Bank of Vietnam, or the central bank, has targeted to keep the banking sector's lending growth this year at 30 percent after a surge of 54 percent in 2007 to fight double-digit inflation.